Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/iii/paper-303/1/f/solution

On a tricritical thermal path, the quartic scaling variable tends to zero, and at zero field . On the ordered side the tricritical crossover scaling function tends to . Consequently
provided the quadratic coefficient has a nonzero thermal slope and the sextic coefficient has a finite positive limit. Since the heat-capacity critical exponent satisfies ,
Equivalently, twice differentiating this ordered-side free-energy density produces the singularity. The scaling path and branch qualifications are the same as for the direct Landau theory calculation: a nonzero fixed positive quartic coefficient would instead send and yield the ordinary transition of part (e).

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